Beaver Island ArchiveA primary-source archive & encyclopedia45°40′N 85°33′W · Lake Michigan
Search

Event

Captain Henry Bundy’s gospel-ship ministry at Beaver Island

Also Captain Bundy Glad Tidings Beaver Island visit

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

TypeEvent
Datecirca 1877
WithinBeaver Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Event
Date
circa 1877
Kind
Religious service
Participants
Capt. Henry Bundy
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
religionmaritimeheritagegeography
Within
Beaver Island
Media
Beaver Island History Map, 1978 revision

Captain Henry Bundy conducted gospel-ship ministry at Beaver Island by 1883. The strongest evidence is contemporary: the September 13, 1883 Christian Cynosure summarized Bundy’s own report that he had begun a promising Sunday school in one island village and ministered in another. It called his vessel Good Tidings.1

Other sources use Glad Tidings. A July 1883 Manistique Pioneer report says Bundy had sold in fall 1882 the vessel on which his family had sailed for six years and built a larger ship that winter. The contemporary spelling variants are therefore both retained.

The 1882 map claim

The 1978 Historical Map places “Captain Bundy’s Gospel Ship GOOD TIDINGS” off the northwest shore and adds a dagger with June 10, 1882. A later Beaver Island Historical Society lighthouse narrative says Harrison “Tip” Miller rescued Bundy and his family when the ship sank. Neither source identifies its underlying record.

No contemporary source located in this audit confirms the date, casualty type, site, or rescue. The report that Bundy sold his six-year vessel in fall 1882 suggests that any June casualty did not end in an unrecovered total loss, unless the report referred to a different craft. The KB therefore records the map and rescue tradition without creating a dated shipwreck event as fact.

Evidence limits

The 1883 report establishes Bundy’s island work but does not identify the two villages. The approximately 1877 first visit and Paradise Bay encounter come from a 2012 retrospective and remain approximate. Bundy used a succession of mission vessels, so this event record does not collapse every Good/Glad Tidings into one vessel identity.

See also

Sources

See the sources block above.

Footnotes

  1. Christian Cynosure, September 13, 1883, p. 13. ↩

Sources

  1. Contemporary religious press calls Bundy’s vessel Good Tidings and summarizes his letter to Chicago Board of Trade president J. B. Hobbs: Bundy reported Beaver Island free from visible drunkenness, a promising Sunday school begun in one village, and ministry in another. It directly establishes his 1883 island work but does not name the villages or mention an 1882 casualty.
  2. The quoted contemporary report uses Glad Tidings, says the vessel sold in fall 1882 had carried Bundy’s family for six years, and describes the larger vessel built over the following winter. It supports the vessel chronology but is not direct evidence for the Beaver Island ministry or casualty.
  3. Described in this archive: Beaver Island History Map, 1978 revision.
    Labels Captain Bundy’s gospel ship GOOD TIDINGS and gives a dagger with June 10, 1882. The map prints no source or explanation of whether the dagger means sinking, grounding, rescue, or another event.
  4. Later local narrative says Harrison “Tip” Miller saved Bundy and his family when Good Tidings sank. It supplies neither a date nor a primary citation and is retained as rescue tradition, not independent confirmation of the map’s exact date.
  5. Beaver Beacon, January 2012, "A Visiting Ship - Sunk at the Big Mac."
    Reports Captain Henry Bundy's conversion, gospel-ship ministry, multiple vessels named Glad Tidings, visits among northern Lake Michigan fishing islands, and the later sinking of his former steamer between Mackinac Island and the mainland. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2012-01_Beaver-Beacon
  6. The held January issue scan confirms the historical maritime and religious feature.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2012-01_Beaver-Beacon

Added 6 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Captain Henry Bundy’s gospel-ship ministry at Beaver Island”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-glad-tidings-ministry-1877/, accessed [date], citing Christian Cynosure, vol. 15, no. 51, September 13, 1883, p. 13. (and 5 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-06. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

BibTeXRIS